Method of photographing a track or object longer than the camera field of view



NcNYlS, 1952 D. R HERMAIRI 2,618,195

METHOD OF PHOTOGRAPHING A T ACK OR OBJECT LONGER THAN THE CAMERA FIELD OF VIEW Filed Nov. 15, 1948 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. DICK. Q. l/CQMAN Nov. 18, 1952 D. R. HERMAN 2,618,195

METHOD OF PHOTOGRAPHI NG A TRACK OR OBJECT LONGER THAN THE} CAMERA FIELD OF VIEW Filed Nov. 13, 1948 1 a Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. 0/014 Q. IICQMAN orromvev Nov. 18, 1952 D. R. HERMAN I 2. 5

METHOD OF PHOTOGRAPHING A TRACK OR OBJECT LONGER THAN THE CAMERA FIELD OF VIEW Filed Nov. 13, 1948 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 IN V EN TOR.

Patented Nov. 18, 1952 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE METHOD or. PHOTOGRAPHING'VATRACK. OR OBJECT LONGER THAN" THE CAMERA FIELD OF VIEW Dick R. Herman,.Los Angeles,.Calif;, .assignor to Northrop Aircraft, Inc., Hawthorne, Calif.', a corporation of California Application November 13, 1948, Serial No. 59,803

4 Claims.

This: invention. relates to. photography, and.

more. particularly tov a. method for. photographing: theentire length of a long line or course.

occur; however: temporary may bev their dura-- tion. Thus, for. example, velocities maybe ac-- curately-determinedbyphotographin the passage of an object over a marked course, whenproperlyI correlated with time intervals.

If the entire. action required to. be. covered in this-mannertakes place substantially within the fieldof. viewof the camera, satisfactory results can be obtained. However; if a straight-line courseof; some length is involved, the photo-- graphic. coverage becomes more difiicult because the. cameramust be moved aboutduring the operating. period of the object in motion. When photographing'the entire run of avery high speed object 'under test, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep the object in the:field..of view by i this panning-movement.

I-t is. the object. of. this invention to. enable. a.-

much; greater length of. scope-to be. covered. by ai camera than; is normally provided". by the dis reetQfieldof view of the camera alone. This.

will. make it possible to project onto the camera filmaview of"a.relatively. longcour'se orstrack whilezthe camera remains: at. one: stationary. poe

sition, so: that nozpanning movement is required to cover theentire course; 7

In broad terms, the present invention: com

prises a cameraviewing abank of "strip-mirrors placed one above the other in the picture frame and-independently adjusted so that a difierent v portionof" a course. ortrack is seen in' each mirror.

The; invention may be more. fully. understood.

by. reference to. the, accompanying. drawings. and the iollowingdescription of a specific apparatus. utilizing: this novel method. Itis to be understood. that this.v method is applicable to other apparatus, andthatthis. invention is notlimited inv any waytothe specific. apparatus v shown herein, since other. apparatus embodiments may be... adopted within the scope of. the; appended claims. 7

In the drawings:

Figure 1. isa plan view showing. a long track. andav camera. location for photographing all portions of. the trackon each frame of film.

Figure 2 .is a plan view on a larger scalethan thatlof. Figure 1, showing thecamera, a mirror. set-up,.and horizontal reflection angles.

Figure 3. is a crossetrack view, not drawn to scale,.showing the vertical optical paths from camera to. track.

Figure 4is. a side view of the mirror set-up in Figure 3, showing details of mirror arrangement and adjustment.

Figure 5'is a side View of a portion of the track, showingdistance markers positioned therealong. Figure dis a reproduction of'one frame of film after exposure, showing results obtained from the embodiment as described herein when used to photograph a rocket driven high speed sled.

Referring first to Figures 1 and 2, atrack I extends along the ground. in a straight. line for a length L. Located roughly equi-distant from the ends of the track.l and at a distance Dfrom the track is a motion picture camera 2 of thehigh speed, continuous filmdrive type pointing away from the track I and viewinga series of nine mirror assemblies 3 mounted on a mirror post 4. The mirror assemblies 3 are separated. from. the camera 2 by a distance C, and both the camera and the mirror post 4 are mounted on a teeter stand 5 ,\as may best be seen in,Figure 3; Each mirror assembly 3 (Figure 4') includes. a

' hub 6 rotatably mounted on the post 4, a mirror channel I, and. a fr'ont-silvered plane: mirror 8 about 1% inches wide by 21 inches longmount'edi on. the channel 1. The mirror. assemblies 3' areplaced. one above another with their-edges nearly touching.

The camera2 position relative to the mirrors 8'is adjusted so that the total area of the mirrors is centered in the field of. view of the camera; The'teeterstand 5 is then. adjusted so that the center'of the track [is visible as seen from the camera 2 to the center mirror and. over the" top of the camera.. In other words; the camera: itself must not block the viewof the track directly-behind the camera.

For individual adjustment, each mirror assembly 3;, as shown in Figure 4, may be rotated in a. horizontal plane about the mirror post .4. and the hub 5 clampedtightly by meansof a thumb screw. 9 installed in each. hub. .Vertical adjustment is accomplished by an acliustingscrew' With these two adjustments, the top mirror is aligned to cover the track I from the starting end to the limit of the mirror in the lengthwise direction along the track I. The second mirror is then aligned to cover the next portion of track from where the view in the top, or first, mirror left off. Continuing in this manner, each succeeding mirror is set to view the next length of track, ending with the bottom mirror viewing the finish end of the track.

With the camera operating, an object moving from the starting end to the finish end will appear on the film, first at the left end of the top mirror of the first frames, then, progressing from left to right across the following horizontal mirrors in order; appear last at the right end of the bottom mirror of the latter frames; The finished film maybe used in a projector or printed to obtain still shots. Figures 1, 2, and 3 show details of both the horizontal and vertical coverages. Adjacent mirrors may overlap the view a slight amount, if desired, but this is not necessary.

In one particular set-up, the following approximate quantitative values were involved. Track length L was 1,850 feet, camera distance D from the track was 900 feet, and mirrordistance C from the camera was 12 to 14 feet. A 16 mm. high-speed camera Was used, with an f/2.7, 63 mm. lens. The camera was set to operate at a maximum speed of about 1,500 frames per second, and a 100-foot reel of film was used. A timing arrangement was provided in the camera to mark a time trace at one edge of the film every .01 second. This was to insure accurate timing, since a substantial amount of film footage is used up as the camera approaches its top speed; therefore, the film speed during the operational period would not be constant.

The horizontal field of view F (Figures 1 and 2) for this camera and lens combination is approximately 10 degrees, while the vertical field of view V (Figure 3) is about I degrees. As a result, there was practically no overlapping of the view from one mirror to the next, and the vertical coverage H at the track (Figure 3) was about 12 feet.

Consistent with size and shape of object, length of run, and other considerations, the camera may be located at any desired spot, since the mirrors are individually adjusted. Also, more or less than nine mirrors may be used. Larger film will produce larger pictures, but any size may be used, and any camera suitable for the purpose of each case may be used.

.Figure 5 shows distance markers 15 erected along the track i. These markers, for the example given, may be positioned every 50 feet along the track and are preferably marked differently so that each one indicates its total distance from the start. In addition, painted strips l6 may be provided at any desired portion of the track, or for its entire length. These strips 16, for example, may be 5 feet long with 5-foot spaces between strips. Velocity at any point may be computed by noting a short distance traveled and "the time taken to cover this distance.

An example of the film coverage obtained from the above-described embodiment is shown in Fi ure 6. This is an enlarged reproduction of one frame of the 16 mm. film, showing nine horizontal sections each corresponding to one of the nine strip mirrors 8, a fast-moving object I1, track I, 50-foot track markers 15, 5-foot trackv strips 16, and a time pulse [8 which appears as a dark spot along one edge of the film between the sprocket holes IS. The fast-moving object I! pictured in Figure 6 is one design of a vehicle shown and described in a co-pending application entitled High Speed Landcraft, Serial No. 47,914, filed September 4, 1948, capable of moving over the track at velocities on the order of 1,000 M. P. H.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that many uses present themselves for this invention, such as photographing races of many kinds, projectiles, or high speed vehicles carrying models of various types, for example. The present invention is, therefore, not limited to the embodiment herein described since it is capable of a variety of uses, and is limited only to the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. The method of photographing and determining the velocity of a high speed vehicle travelling over a track substantially longer than the field of view of a high speed motion picture camera, which comprises forming separate and simultaneous images of consecutive, adjacent lengths of track of field of view width, positioning said images one below the other to form an image of the entire track on each picture on the film taken by said camera, providing said track with distance indicia and marking said film with time traces outside of the field of said pictures.

2. The method of producing, on a single sensitized film in a camera, a photograph of an object substantially longer than the field of view of said camera, which comprises interposing a plurality of light-reflecting elements in the path of light rays from said object, reflecting an image of a different portion of length of said object from each of said elements edge-to-edge into said field of view, and exposing said film to all of said images simultaneously, said images being reflected from immediately adjacent portions of said object.

3. The method of producing on the film of a motion picture camera, a sequence of photographs of an object substantially longer than the field of view of said camera, which comprises interposing a plurality of light-reflecting elements in the path of light rays from said object, reflecting an image of a difierent portion of length of said object from each of said elements edge-to-edge into said field of View, and exposing each frame in turn of said film to all of said images, simultaneously, said images being refiected from immediately adjacent portions of said object.

4. The method of producing on the film of a motion picture camera, a sequence of photographs of an object substantially longer than the field of view of said camera, which comprises interposing a plurality of light-reflecting elements in the path of light rays from said object, reflecting an image of a different portion of length of said object from each of said elements edge-to-edge into said field of view, exposing each frame in turn of said film to all of said images simultaneously, said images being reflected from immediately adjacent portions of said object, providing said track with distance indicia visible on said film, and marking said film with a time trace.

DICK R. HERMAN.

5 REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 10 Number Name Date 71,911 Rawson Dec. 10, 1867 505,127 Ranger Sept. 19, 1893 516,278 Petri Mar. 13, 1894 621,314 Barber Mar. 21, 1899 15 1,033,773 Brewer July 23, 1912 1,275,496 Taylor et a1 Aug. 13, 1918 Number Number Name Date McCormick Feb. 18, 1919 Douglass Aug. 8, 1922 Randall et a1 Mar. 18, 1930 Chretien Oct. 27, 1931 Jennings Jan. 5, 1932 Liho tzky Mar. 29, 1932 Simjian Nov. 10, 1936 Ayres June 3, 1941 Abell July 29, 1941 Wesley May 12, 1942 Del Riccio Aug. 14, 1945 FOREIGN PATENTS Country Date France July 17, 1926 

